Abstract
THE RED REGION IN THE SPECTRA OF WOLF-RAYET STARS.—In the Comptes rendus for January 25 (vol. clx., p. 124) a note is presented by M. J. Bosler on an investigation which he has carried out at the Meudon Observatory on the study of the red region of the spectra of Wolf-Rayet stars. The advance in the magnitude and efficiency of astronomical equipment renders a more minute study of the spectra of faint stars possible, and the bathing of photographic plates opens up new regions of the spectrum for close inspection. M. Bosler describes here the result of the work on fifteen Wolf-Rayet stars, seventy-five clichés in all having been obtained with exposures varying from two to three and a half hours. In the communication he gives a short table, reproduced below, showing the wave-lengths and intensities of several of the lines in the spectra of these stars, which he considers are of more special interest. In the brief discussion he refers to the spectra of nov and their points of semblance with these bright-line stars, and is led to the view that the Wolf-Rayet stars are only the enfeebled remains of nov which have appeared in the course of past centuries. The following table embodies the data in five of the stars mentioned above, the figures in brackets indicating the intensities of the lines:—
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Our Astronomical Column . Nature 94, 652–653 (1915). https://doi.org/10.1038/094652a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/094652a0